CHAPTER 9.

ALL THE PRINCIPLES OF PIETY SUBVERTED BY FANATICS, WHO SUBSTITUTE REVELATIONS
FOR SCRIPTURE.

Sections.

1. The temper and error of the Libertines, who take to themselves the name of
spiritual, briefly described. Their refutation. 1. The Apostles and all true
Christians have embraced the written Word. This confirmed by a passage in
Isaiah; also by the example and words of Paul. 2. The Spirit of Christ seals
the doctrine of the written Word on the minds of the godly.

2. Refutation continued. 3. The impositions of Satan cannot be detected
without the aid of the written Word. First Objection. The Answer to it.

3. Second Objection from the words of Paul as to the letter and spirit.
The Answer, with an explanation of Paulís meaning. How the Spirit and
the written Word are indissolubly connected.

1. THOSE who, rejecting Scripture, imagine that they have some peculiar way of
penetrating to God, are to be deemed not so much under the influence of error
as madness. For certain giddy men77 have lately appeared, who, while
they make a great display of the superiority of the Spirit, reject all reading
of the Scriptures themselves, and deride the simplicity of those who only
delight in what they call the dead and deadly letter. But I wish they would
tell me what spirit it is whose inspiration raises them to such a sublime
height that they dare despise the doctrine of Scripture as mean and childish.
If they answer that it is the Spirit of Christ, their confidence is exceedingly
ridiculous; since they will, I presume, admit that the apostles and other
believers in the primitive Church were not illuminated by any other Spirit.
None of these thereby learned to despise the word of God, but every one was
imbued with greater reverence for it, as their writings most clearly testify.
And, indeed, it had been so foretold by the mouth of Isaiah. For when he says,
ìMy Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy
mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor
out of the mouth of thy seedís seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and
for ever,î he does not tie down the ancient Church to external doctrine,
as he were a mere teacher of elements;78 he rather shows that, under
the reign of Christ, the true and full felicity of the new Church will consist
in their being ruled not less by the Word than by the Spirit of God. Hence we
infer that these miscreants are guilty of fearful sacrilege in tearing asunder
what the prophet joins in indissoluble union. Add to this, that Paul, though
carried up even to the third heaven, ceased not to profit by the doctrine of
the law and the prophets, while, in like manner, he exhorts Timothy, a teacher
of singular excellence, to give attention to reading (1 Tim. 4:13). And the
eulogium which he pronounces on Scripture well deserves to be
rememberedóviz. that ìit is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may
be perfect,î (2 Tim. 3:16). What an infatuation of the devil, therefore,
to fancy that Scripture, which conducts the sons of God to the final goal, is
of transient and temporary use? Again, I should like those people to tell me
whether they have imbibed any other Spirit than that which Christ promised to
his disciples. Though their madness is extreme, it will scarcely carry them the
length of making this their boast. But what kind of Spirit did our Saviour
promise to send? One who should not speak of himself (John 16:13), but suggest
and instil the truths which he himself had delivered through the word. Hence
the office of the Spirit promised to us, is not to form new and unheard-of
revelations, or to coin a new form of doctrine, by which we may be led away
from the received doctrine of the gospel, but to seal on our minds the very
doctrine which the gospel recommends.

2. Hence it is easy to understand that we must give diligent heed both to the
reading and hearing of Scripture, if we would obtain any benefit from the
Spirit of God (just as Peter praises those who attentively study the doctrine
of the prophets (2 Pet. 1:19), though it might have been thought to be
superseded after the gospel light arose), and, on the contrary, that any spirit
which passes by the wisdom of Godís Word, and suggests any other
doctrine, is deservedly suspected of vanity and falsehood. Since Satan
transforms himself into an angel of light, what authority can the Spirit have
with us if he be not ascertained by an infallible mark? And assuredly he is
pointed out to us by the Lord with sufficient clearness; but these miserable
men err as if bent on their own destruction, while they seek the Spirit from
themselves rather than from Him. But they say that it is insulting to subject
the Spirit, to whom all things are to be subject, to the Scripture: as if it
were disgraceful to the Holy Spirit to maintain a perfect resemblance
throughout, and be in all respects without variation consistent with himself.
True, if he were subjected to a human, an angelical, or to any foreign
standard, it might be thought that he was rendered subordinate, or, if you
will, brought into bondage, but so long as he is compared with himself, and
considered in himself, how can it be said that he is thereby injured? I admit
that he is brought to a test, but the very test by which it has pleased him
that his majesty should be confirmed. It ought to be enough for us when once we
hear his voice; but lest Satan should insinuate himself under his name, he
wishes us to recognise him by the image which he has stamped on the Scriptures.
The author of the Scriptures cannot vary, and change his likeness. Such as he
there appeared at first, such he will perpetually remain. There is nothing
contumelious to him in this, unless we are to think it would be honourable for
him to degenerate, and revolt against himself.

3. Their cavil about our cleaving to the dead letter carries with it the
punishment which they deserve for despising Scripture. It is clear that Paul is
there arguing against false apostles (2 Cor. 3:6), who, by recommending the law
without Christ, deprived the people of the benefit of the New Covenant, by
which the Lord engages that he will write his law on the hearts of believers,
and engrave it on their inward parts. The letter therefore is dead, and the law
of the Lord kills its readers when it is dissevered from the grace of Christ,
and only sounds in the ear without touching the heart. But if it is effectually
impressed on the heart by the Spirit; if it exhibits Christ, it is the word of
life converting the soul, and making wise the simple. Nay, in the very same
passage, the apostle calls his own preaching the ministration of the Spirit (2
Cor. 3:8), intimating that the Holy Spirit so cleaves to his own truth, as he
has expressed it in Scripture, that he then only exerts and puts forth his
strength when the word is received with due honour and respect.

There is nothing repugnant here to what was lately said (chap. 7) that we have
no great certainty of the word itself, until it be confirmed by the testimony
of the Spirit. For the Lord has so knit together the certainty of his word and
his Spirit, that our minds are duly imbued with reverence for the word when the
Spirit shining upon it enables us there to behold the face of God; and, on the
other hand, we embrace the Spirit with no danger of delusion when we recognise
him in his image, that is, in his word. Thus, indeed, it is. God did not
produce his word before men for the sake of sudden display, intending to
abolish it the moment the Spirit should arrive; but he employed the same
Spirit, by whose agency he had administered the word, to complete his work by
the efficacious confirmation of the word. In this way Christ explained to the
two disciples (Luke 24:27), not that they were to reject the Scriptures and
trust to their own wisdom, but that they were to understand the Scriptures. In
like manner, when Paul says to the Thessalonians, ìQuench not the
Spirit,î he does not carry them aloft to empty speculation apart from the
word; he immediately adds, ìDespise not prophesying,î (1 Thess.
5:19, 20). By this, doubtless, he intimates that the light of the Spirit is
quenched the moment prophesying fall into contempt. How is this answered by
those swelling enthusiasts, in whose idea the only true illumination consists,
in carelessly laying aside, and bidding adieu to the Word of God, while, with
no less confidence than folly, they fasten upon any dreaming notion which may
have casually sprung up in their minds? Surely a very different sobriety
becomes the children of God. As they feel that without the Spirit of God they
are utterly devoid of the light of truth, so they are not ignorant that the
word is the instrument by which the illumination of the Spirit is dispensed.
They know of no other Spirit than the one who dwelt and spake in the
apostlesóthe Spirit by whose oracles they are daily invited to the
hearing of the word.